| Site Type: | Muck with a sloping sandy bottom |
| Depth: | Top: 3M Bottom: 20M |
| Location: | Located at the southern end of Calumpang Peninsula |
Secret Bay is another incredible muck diving location in Anilao. The black sand beach at Secret Bay continues underwater with the sandy slope home to a wonderful variety of critters.
Starting in the shallows we had to be careful where we placed our hands and fins, as the sand was covered in sea urchins. They seem to be everywhere and some providing shelter to schools of juvenile cardinalfish.
A close look at the multi-coloured fire urchins revealed a number of zebra crabs and Coleman shrimps.
Descending the sandy slope there was an endless array of critters on show with our guide pointing out oriental sea robins, pipefish, demon stingers, thorny seahorses, dragonets, nudibranchs, mantis shrimps and snake eels. My camera was running hot photographing this wonderful array of subjects.
I also got to explore this incredible site after sunset, when a different menagerie of critters emerged to feed. Exploring the sand and rubble we spotted all manner of crab – box crabs, hermit crabs, swimming crabs, carrying crabs, spider crabs and strange pebble crabs. Hunting these crabs were octopus, squid and cuttlefish.
During our nocturnal exploration we also encountered soles, flatheads, snake eels, prawns, shrimps and a wide variety of shells. But a special highlight for me was a strange worm in the shallows, a worm with rabbit trap-like jaws – a bobbit worm. These lethal worms wait for passing prey, which is virtually anything that moves, then snatch them with their powerful jaws and drag them into the sand to be consumed. I was very glad they are not large enough to grab a diver!
